Smartphones

Our Favorite Android, iOS, and Windows Phone Apps of the Week

The app developers of the world have had another week to impress us, and they don’t disappoint. Here’s the best and most brightly-colored apps that were introduced or newly revamped this week. Go ahead, let your smartphone taste the rainbow. Multi-Platform Updates TheScore TheScore gives you the constant-updating, wall-to-wall sports coverage you need, whether you’re…

The Wakie Alarm App Recruits Strangers to Help Get You Out of Bed

Wakie is an Android and Windows Phone app (iOS is currently in the approval process) that lets complete strangers dial you up to help get your ass out of bed, and I couldn’t think of anything more terrifying. Here’s how the app works. After signing in with your phone number, the app splits users into…

Got your eye on a new Moto X or Moto G smartphone? Motorola will give you up to $300 on a cash card when you trade in your old smartphone. Hypothetically, that means you could buy a subsidized Moto and make money, if you trade in a desirable phone in perfect condition. [Motorola via Cnet]

I Don’t Want a Bigger Moto X. I Want a Better Moto X.

Last year’s Moto X is the best phone I’ve ever owned. It’s just the right size, it has just the right features. And by the time I’m ready to upgrade, it won’t exist anymore, because the way we make smartphones now is dumb. Overnight, Motorola announced its successor to the original Moto X, which while…

9 Awesome Features Smartphones Still Don’t Have

This last week we’ve seen so many phones. So. Many. Phones. From Samsung, HTC, Nokia, Sony, Motorola, and the most talked about smartphone release from Apple is still yet to come. But they’re all still missing a few features that would make them even better. These phones have been adorned with impressive screens, upgraded pixels,…

Moto X 2014 Hands-On: Better, Smarter, Bigger

Here at last! The Moto X was one of our favorite phones from last year, and now the sequel is here. It’s called… the Moto X. Guess the X+1 thing was just a codename. Labels aside, we’ve spent a good half day with the new Moto X, and so far it lives up to the…

Moto G 2014 Hands-On: Bigger Bang For the Same Buck

Guess what Motorola’s top-selling phone of all time is? Nope, it’s not the Razr, it’s last year’s Moto G. For 180 bucks off-contract and unlocked, it was a hell of a lot of phone. Well, the 2014 model is here, and it’s bigger and better, and it costs just the same. The new Moto G…

NYT Confirms Two iPhones, New iWatch Details

The New York Timesjust published a very authoritative and fairly exciting report on what Apple will be announcing next week. You guessed it: two new iPhones with larger screen sizes and a wearable computer (a.k.a. an iWatch.) But there are plenty of details we hadn’t heard yet. It was already a big day for Apple…

Soldiers Describe How DARPA Smartphones Save Lives in Battle

The average pedestrian walks around with more sophisticated navigation and communication technology in his pocket than our soldiers have on the battlefield. That’s why the military is working hard on developing a battle-ready smartphone that would bring our troops up to speed. According to the soldiers who’ve tested the Pentagon’s prototypes, the tech can’t come…

Some Simple Software Could Make Your Smartphone Camera Way Better

Smartphone photography is convenient, but far from perfect. Enter Canadian startup Algolux, which promises to use some clever computation to make up for how small and crappy your smartphone camera lens is. Lenses are a significant part of why your DSLR takes stellar shots and your smartphone simply acceptable ones. As smoother a lens, the…

Google Will Apparently Replace Your Nexus 5 No Matter How You Broke It

Did you bust your Nexus 5 smartphone? Don’t sweat it—users are saying that the Play Store will send you a brand-new (refurbished) handset for free, no matter how you broke yours. Google hasn’t confirmed the offer just yet, but it seems legit. This isn’t the first no-questions-asked smartphone replacement policy; Motorola and HTC both offer…

There’s $2.5 Billion Worth of Silver and Gold in Phones Sold This Year

Your gadgets contain tiny specks of precious and rare earth metals—we rely on these dust-sized particles, which are so small they’re often not recycled because the cost of recycling outweighs the value of the metals. But according to the American Chemical Society, the overall value of these minute materials is massive. In a report published…

Sony Xperia Z3 Will Let You Remote Play PS4 Games

Though the Sony Xperia Z3 is only a subtle upgrade over its predecessors, it brings with it a killer feature—the ability to remote-play PlayStation 4 games. But first, the handset itself. A 5.2-inch number (measuring 146 x 72 x 7.3mm, and weighing 152g), it’s running a Sony-skinned version of Android 4.4.4. Waterproofed to an IP65-68…

We Need a “Private Photo” Mode For Phones

There are still too many unknowns about the hack that launched a thousand (well, a dozen or so) celeb nudes over the weekend; how it happened, what’s being done to keep it from happening again. But one thing has become more clear than ever: the need for a “private photo” mode on your smartphone. That…

Our Favorite Android, iOS, and Windows Phone Apps of the Week

It’s the end of summer and a holiday weekend, and apparently all the app makers are on vacation. As a result, we’ve only got a small haul of new apps this week. But maybe they’re enough to help distract you from the annoying guests at your Labor Day cookout. Multi-Platform Updates SportsManias Why just be…

What Do Smartphones Need That They Don’t Already Have?

Welcome to the first week of September, also known as crazy-insane IFA 2014 and iPhone event extravaganza. During the next 10 days we’ll see new handsets, smartwatches, and other tech paraphernalia from almost every major hardware manufacturer. So now I’m wondering, where do smartphones even go from here? Recently companies have been testing what we…

An App Can Tell If Addicts Are Faking Withdrawal Tremors To Get a Fix

If your body is used to consuming alcohol every day, and you suddenly stop cold turkey, you’re going to experience withdrawal symptoms including tremors. They’re treatable with benzodiazepine drugs, but often times those can be abused by addicts who fake tremors in order to get a prescription. Spotting those fake tremors isn’t always easy, so…

What’s the Perfect Smartphone Screen Size?

Now that we have confirmation of Apple’s next iPhone event being just around the corner, it’s only a matter of days before we (very, very likely) see a bigger iPhone screen finally rounding out the bunch. Which got us thinking—what’s your ideal smartphone screen size? The iPhone 6 will most likely come in at a…

A New Kind of Chip Could Make Wearables Last Way Longer on a Charge

Smartwatches, Google Glass, even humble fitness trackers: all great, apart from the fact that the batteries last for what seems like minutes. But now, a new kind of low-power processor could change that. Developed by a startup company Ineda Systems, the new chip is actually intended to work alongside another, more powerful processor—and that’s the…

Motorola’s Phone-Unlocking Keyfob Might Be Getting Way More Useful

Released in tandem with the Moto X last year, the Motorola Skip was a handy, if slightly silly little NFC fob that you could use to unlock your phone. According to documents posted by Droid Life, the new version will be Bluetooth enabled, making it way more useful. According to the supposed user manual for…